Green Light with Chris Long - NFL Free Agency Updates! Ja'Marr Chase & Tee Higgins, Aaron Rodgers' Destination & Derek Stingley Jr.! White Lotus Reactions, Spring Break & NCAA Tourney Brackets!

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

The fellas are BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN! Chris and Macon pop in the studio to catch up, talk NFL updates and give out their Mentions for NFL Free Agency. Macon also runs through the March Madness bracket and gives out the answer key - get hip to his picks. Chris talks about the Bengals giving BIG contracts to Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, Derek Stingley Jr. resetting the CB market, Cooper Kupp's deal in Seattle, Stefon Digg's landing spot and where Aaron Rodgers will ultimately chose to play football next season - if he doesn't hang his cleats up first. Note that there are spoilers in the White Lotus discussion - it's worth it. Enjoy the listen! (00:00) - Intro (2:23) - Spring Break Travel (17:45) - White Lotus (Spoilers) (21:55) - NFL Updates: Bengals, Cooper Kupp, Stefon Diggs & Aaron Rodgers (1:10:48) - NFL Free Agency Mentions (1:45:20) - NCAA Tournament Bracket Green Light Podcast March Madness Tournament! Click the link below to fill out the form granting you entry into the GLP bracket! Prizes include 1st place $500, 2nd place $250, 3rd place $100 in Bet MGM gift cards. Must be 21+ to be eligible for a prize. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbnomKvB7t2zNKqvKNMstq_P2HClxciUC95moAHD-mDIKcyg/viewform Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ In need of sweet threads to vibe like Chris and the fellas? Check out https://greenlightpodcast.org/ for everything merch wise and then some! Also, check out our paddling partners at Appomattox River Company to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. https://paddleva.com/ Green Light's YouTube Channel, where you can catch all the latest GL action: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxWFAA-wuB7osdiAJyLOcw Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

But the point is, you got Joe Burrow, you've got these two receivers signed up. I think, hey, you got P. Ryan back, little things like that that might help this offense get even better next year. Gasecki seems like he's going to be a fixture there, right? Chase Brown was great this year. Improve the offensive line. Continue to improve the offensive line if you can. But I think the main thing you've got to do is load up on defense in the draft. And so this is maybe the most important draft in Joe Burroughs.

career and it's not offense. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast presented by BetMGM. If you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code Greenlight and you will get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. Here's how it works. Download the BetMGM app and sign up using bonus code Greenlight. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. If that bet loses, you will receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets. Just make sure you use bonus code greenlight when you sign up. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast. We're back in the saddle again.

Chris and Macon ripping it from Studio J. They'd catch up, talk some NFL updates, and give out free agent mentions. The best flights, worst flights, fly on the wall moments, and game balls from this year's free agency. And then Macon downloads you on this year's NCAA tournament. He gives you the answer key. So enjoy the episode. We'll be back with some heat later this week. And just an alert, we've got some White Lotus spoilers. If you have not seen the latest episode of White Lotus or if you are not caught up to the latest season, just beware. Listen at your own discretion. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the studio. I haven't been in this studio in a while. I don't think I have. Cowboy?

It would have been after the Super Bowl. Like just after? Yeah. Yeah, the Monday reaction show. Here we are. We're back. Spring break, Chris. Spring break, yeah.

Did you do a little spring break in? We just all had the flu. And kids, I know they did something. Oh, they went to Richmond, Virginia for a morning. For what? Jumped around. Is it? Yeah.

They're too little. We can't go on a trip or anything. Well, that's what I thought as well. We decided to fly all the way to Arizona. My wife is like, it'll be fine. 40 minutes into the line at Philadelphia International Airport, my 19-month-old screaming like a fucking terrorist. People staring at us.

Yeah. Not cool. Did it keep going like that? Kept going for most of the flight. Well, I mean, I wouldn't say like the whole flight, but at one point I turned to my wife and said, we're never doing this again. Well, she's only going to get older. That's how time works.

But she's going to be seven, and I'm not going to take her anywhere. At least your bigs are bigger. Yeah, the bigs did well. Give an iPad, give them both an iPad and totally good. And they'll have memories of the trip. Totally. And we made a lot of memories. So, wait, you went to Richmond.

I didn't go. No. They went to Richmond. I went to work. They went to, they have like an appointment in Richmond or something? No, Kay just took them. They had a blast. So it came back with a lot of stories.

But I didn't have enough. Sounds like they just went to, you just drove them down there. As I understand it, you parked the car, they got out and they jumped around. Oh, right, right, right, right. So there was some sort of building that welcomes children. They have all sorts of colors and, you know, apparatus to climb around on and stuff. You get any more information. It's like a fun house.

I got tons of pictures and videos. You act like it's unfortunate that you went to work. I would have loved to have gone to work. Yeah, you know, you see those rankings of the days of the week. Yeah. I'm like, Monday's keeping up there pretty high. Monday through Friday? Top five.

The weekends? Tough. They are tough. And then when you go to like, when you have a spring break, it's basically like a big weekend. Yes. but you know we had fun we went to arizona you know the um the flight thing is not advisable i always struggle with kids on flights not because like i'm struggling but because i'm anticipating other people being like super upset and indignant about the fact that they paid two hundred

dollars to get on this flight and they didn't expect kids to be on it you know there's a lot of people like that i think it's the first part i think it's that you're a considerate person Yeah, I'm trying to be concerned. You feel bad if somebody feels inconvenient. Yes, that's right. But then you're also ready for the indignation. You're ready for the confrontation. Yeah.

Did you notice any eyes, any bad looks? No, everybody was really nice. Good. Shout out to the teacher that was sitting in front of my kids. You know, it's like, it was a very, very fortunate situation. It wasn't Miss Appleberry. Sort of situation? No, it wasn't.

Okay. But Miss Rachel has a friend. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, silly Miss Lily? I don't know her name. Or, uh, there's, uh, oh, yeah. I was just kind of popped in there.

I know her, yeah. So anyways, um, a week in Arizona. I'm not a big Arizona guy. No offense to anybody in Arizona, not enough trees. Uh, highways are like Mad Max. Um, it's either really hot or it's not. I was going to ask how, what the weather was. Well, it rained half the week, which was actually pretty abnormal.

Wow. made things a little tougher with young kids, but we found things to do all the time. We did go to Sedona. That was my favorite part of the trip. If anybody listening or watching has been to Sedona, you know what I'm talking about, but if you haven't and you have an opportunity to go to Sedona, I would.

Were those the pictures of the hike with the kids? Yeah, it was unbelievable. I looked dope. It was unbelievable. We left the baby at home. Smart. Which helped. But like sandstone rock formations,

literally not being an Arizona guy, you're driving north from Phoenix. and you're like, you're like, ugh, just more Arizona. And then you get up towards Sedona and it's unbelievable. There are trees. The mountains are red. You see the cathedral rocks formation. We had a super cool guide that took us on a hike with the kids.

His name's Derek. Shout out to Derek. And Derek told me about a lot of the hippie activity that goes on in Sedona. I bet there's a healthy amount. Yeah, like you get up on these big rocks. You got to like climb up. and it's nice and flat and uh they they say that like during a full moon people will congregate up there on the rocks with like bongos and shit and like they're carrying big crystals up the

mountain yeah they haven't showered in days well i didn't get yeah i don't want pigeonhole him this is like a burning man light well there's four vortexes in sidona was which are basically like energy fields it's pretty crazy so they say Sedona has like a lot of energy yeah if you're into that stuff. Sedona's like a place where you come to meditate and escape your worldly responsibilities under the guise of like spirituality, which I'm considering doing. I was like, yeah, let me get the number for these crystal people. I might be back. Do you drop everything? Do I have to grow dreadlocks? Is there a, I wonder if there's a crystal store. You have to pick up your own. There are crystal story. really there's like a but you know it's another thing cool thing about sonona they have a

mcdonalds sidona's got pole where this fucking macdonalds is the only macdonalds i've ever seen without a yellow arch in fact it has no arch coming out of the the mcdonalds like sordona's got pull like that where they're like if you want to have a mcdonalds you can't be putting a big arch on top of the mcdonalds is fucking up the ambiance of the red rocks we're only going to allow you to have one arch and it's on the side of the building and it's got to be turquoise because everything out there is like turquoise and pastel

because it's real, you know, southwestern. I think it's really cool. We stopped at that McDonald's. I read something. Remember when we were growing up how the McDonald's had play spaces? Look at that shit. Look at that arch right there.

Is that not cool? That is cool. That's the coolest looking McDonald's you've ever seen. Yeah, breaking butt. had vibes to that. Yeah, for sure. Part of McDonald's. For sure.

Remember we could crawl around in tubes and McDonald's and stuff and there were ballpits? Playmen. Yeah. And you don't see those anymore. Apparently because they hooked all of us, our generation is like the really unhealthy cats, you know? Yeah. And so as we grew older, McDonald's changed their vibe to all these sort of

vibe-less, characterless facades. Yeah, there's no more grimace. right there's no more hamburgler you ask most kids who grimaces they have no idea yeah um there's no ronald macdonald statue in most of the the macdonalds mcdonalds is losing some of its luster you know what i think of when i think of arizona what the lewd olson ass logo of those 90s basketball teams where the cactus was the eye no i mean listen there's a lot of cool cacti out there i learned a lot about the agave plant etc giant saguaro

cactuses I mean it's a super I mean like there are some cool areas in Arizona we should have gone to the Grand Canyon but we didn't have enough time here's another we did Great Wolf Lodge anybody have been to a Great Wolf Lodge I know there's one there's one in Virginia

yeah there's one in Virginia this is the Arizona one which is just basically like Piss City it's an indoor water park and it's Piss City yet if I were like a sheik or somebody I would absolutely rent one out for myself because it's spectacular but you're swimming in urine like there's a lazy river and everything like you know what's going on in there like you know you absolutely know what's going on there and I feel like an indoor water park makes it a little bit more like moldy yeah you know even though it's probably doesn't change the fact that people are urinating in the

water like the fact that it's inside now this was a classy great wolf lodge in Scottsdale I think it was that one. Yeah, it had like, like rope horses and stuff. Yeah, it's very cool. Every 30 minutes in the water park, there's a big like howling wolf sound. It was sick. So, uh, enjoy Great Wolf Lodge. And then, uh, maybe my favorite place was the aquarium in Scottsdale.

Okay. Well, what? Mixed feelings, you know, about the captivity of it all. Yeah, but I think most of those, um, animals like, bitched up and couldn't live in the wild. I think you're right. Okay. You know, there's like a process there. Yeah.

You know, like if you drop some of these, these captivity sea lines back into the wild, they'd be like, they'd be lunched by an orca in a heartbeat. They've lost it, so to speak. Yeah. The aquarium was incredible. We go in the aquarium. It ends up being a great time. But like down to things like we go in the bathroom.

and it's got this fucking state of the art like the bathroom is very cool you look through the wall where the mirror is supposed to be behind where you wash your hands and it's sharks that's cool it was really cool but of course my dad

is like guys let's get some pictures in the bathroom oh in the bathroom he's posing the kids in front of the sink and he's like Chris get in here there's a line of three people waiting to wash their hands And like, you know me. I'm like, get me the fuck out.

I go, no, dad, I think I'll skip. And I walk out in the hallway. But it was an incredible aquarium. They had a stingray touch exhibit that was like second to none. You're allowed to touch all the stingrays, touch as many stingrays and skates as you want. But you got to touch them with two fingers. They don't like five fingers. Yeah.

And so Waylon and I were sitting there for like an hour. He touched, he said 36 stingrays. Wow. And so it was my mom's birthday yesterday. Happy birthday, DeLo. And his birthday card said, happy birthday. Grandma, you're the best grandma in the world. I touched all 36 of those stingrays for you.

Wow. So it was a good trip. You didn't get a hold of a piece of paper with 36 on it. Yeah, well, no. That's his new career high. It was 26 points in basketball this year. Now it's 36 stingrays. We had a great time in the aquarium.

Great Wolf Lodge. would recommend get all your shots before you go. Sedona was awesome. I saw the eclipse. Did you guys see the eclipse? No, I know you didn't see the eclipse. You can't get moved by an eclipse. When, what day was this?

March 13th and 14th. It was a blood moon and an equips. Look what is wrong with me? It was an equip. I went outside. I went outside in a whittle moon. was turning wet. And so, yeah, no, it was like advertised all day.

I was talking about it. I was like, yeah, we got a blood moon and an eclipse and everything. And so we're in Arizona. You figure that's like the place you want to see an eclipse. Not a lot of clouds and shit. Right. So I walk outside and I get in formation to see the eclipse and my wife's going to bed. And she's like, let me know if you've seen the eclipse.

And I'm like, all right, I'll call you. And so I call her from up, you know, from, downstairs and she's like okay i'm coming and she comes outside and she goes i it's like a full-blown eclipse and it hasn't turned red yet but it's a full-blown fucking eclipse dude the sun's behind the moon or whatever the fuck that is hey and when i tell you she turned to me and said it's not even that red i was like are you fucking kidding me i give you an eclipse and it's not good enough you know and then i call my mom who's inside too and she's like no it's not it's clouds that's not an eclipse that's not an eclipse send me a picture i'm like walk outside what is it with women and eclipses seriously they're not

good enough for you guys nothing's good enough for you guys good on you trying to include other people in your eclipse i'm sorry that they didn't take here's the difference when i called my dad he at least just clearly didn't give a shit like he just didn't give a shit like my mom though wanted to keep me on the phone for 30 seconds describe the eclipse like walk outside and then my wife

comes out it's not red enough is that not a microcosm of trying to make the women in your life happy check this out not only a full-blown eclipse but also a blood moon eclipse nah not red enough in the desert too probably like that accentuated like

It's like, okay. I'm not saying you can't keep women happy. People are unhappy generally. It's not just women. But most guys, we're a little bit simpler. We'd be like, oh, big moon red. This is so cool. But like, not them. It's not good enough. Wasn't red enough. Did you at least stay out there? Yeah, alone. Okay. All right. Like, alone. Like, nobody to watch the eclipse with. How fucking sad is that? Did you take that? Yeah, they weren't very good. And then the next morning. morning I told my parents I sent them like a Google image picture of like the dopest picture of the fucking blood moon eclipse ever and I was like yeah I took this last night and they were like oh that's pretty good like how'd you do that I go portrait mode and like like dark mode at the same time and they're like wow but my dad was like but my dad was like wow cool like didn't even like wasn't even like that's an incredible picture yeah

How is that possible? It sounds like it just doesn't like eclipses. Sounds like my whole family's anti-eclips. And it's fucking sad. So anyways. But if you talk to them about free agency, oh man, did you see, did you see what happened?

Do you see they got Will Fries? All right. So anyways, my family does not give a shit about things that I'm interested in. Sounds like you had more plot to your spring break than the White Lotus. has had in four or five episodes. You haven't liked it so far.

I have not. Really? No. And I love it, but uninteresting characters not developing, for one. Seriously, that whole girl, the girl trip and the eastern block guys that all work in Thailand, like terrible group of people. Right. Who clearly did the first burglary, like that's, they just, you know, the smash and grab.

That was those guys. Oh, you think it was them for sure. Yeah. Hollow Man, the Thai Sam Bradford. Yeah. You know that guy looks like Sam Bradford, the security guard? Yeah, Guy Talk. Bro, he, spoiler alert, if you're watching White Lotus, which you should, even though it's

You should, yes. Like Mike White's so good at this that even if you're not into the fucking, the formula is going to work in perpetuity. They just might run out of resorts. Yeah. But I think the formula works great. but but it is um which part we just talking about guy talk sam bradford oh when he got that gun stolen from him yeah he waited until sundown to check the recording yes like he's terrible at his job very bad like just awful at his job but does he not look a little like sam bradford he does he

like tie sam bradford i can't stop seeing it if this guy were a defense he'd be the 2024 bench angles. He really would. Oh, he looks, he looks much different. He looks different in real life. Yeah. He's really playing this character well. Yeah.

Total coward. And hey, my guy Jason Isaac's accent, he went and bitched and moan to variety to try to have them write a puff piece, which they did, that he was doing a very specific Durham, North Carolina accent, I know plenty of people in Durham.

It doesn't come out Australian. Guys are Brit trying to do Southern, and it comes out Australian every other sentence. I'm just too mystified by his wife, who is the perfectly cast Mid-Atlantic woman. Yeah. The perfectly cast ACC woman, dude. Yep, yep.

Great meme potential from last night, where this is not a spoiler. Jason Isaacs puts a gun, to his head while wearing a Duke t-shirt, which is going to work for every Duke loss for the rest of time. Hey, funniest line last night. Hey, you want to go to, you want to move to Taiwan? Yeah, that was, that was that was pretty good. That was, um, that was great. Hey, I'll give you a worst seat because we're going to get, because we're going to be getting into, uh, what do you think the worst seat was last? The worst seat of this whole season was, uh, Gagin's character. Oh my God.

to sit with his friend in Thailand. Who's that? Sam Rockwell. Sam Rockwell talking about... That was... I guess I was fucking me. I think that was the best part of the season so far. I was 100% sure that he was at the end going to be like, I'm fucking with you.

Yeah, right. But nah. Nah. That was five minutes of a monologue of lady boys and his words, not mine. That was insane. It just kept descending. And Goggins reactions. And I'm not saying that the actresses are doing a bad job.

I don't think that that group is working out. Right. They're not being given anything to work with. No. No. It's also like one of those trips where you're like, why would you take this trip together? Right. We get it.

You all don't like each other. You're pretending to like each other. But it was like they hadn't talked in years. Like that's a, that's like a nightmare scenario. like having to go on a vacation with friends from like 20 years ago who you haven't talked to. Yeah. Let's start with a night at the bar. NFL news.

Big news today. Big news today is Jordan Schultz. It's twins. We get to break two. Jordan Schultz gets two big scoops. He gets T. Higgins and Jamar Chase. Same time. Same time.

That guy's, that's a best seat candidate. What a story. hadn't you know like we're kind of on the edge of our seat all offseason wondering like when's jemar getting paid is that going to mean almost certainly it means t higgins isn't going to be a bangle in the future plus on top of that you have trey hendricksson the bengals don't pay anybody yada yada yada who's going to play defense for this team well they paid them both and that makes them this is an interesting tweet from Jason OTC The Bengals will certainly

be a case study. They now have $124 million per year invested in the top QB, top two wide receivers. Dolphins are second at 111.4 million. Eagles are third at 108 million.

Cowboys are fourth at 98.5 million in Lyons, fifth at 88.3 million. So mixed bag when it comes to paying like a tree so to speak, or some combination of that because you get the Lions

who are thought of as being an organization that's run really well right now, as well as the Eagles. The Dolphins just haven't been able to round the corner and the Cowboys are kind of a laughing stock this time of year because they're not doing a damn thing

yet you look at that and you're like, damn, they got a lot of money tied up in CD Lamb and Dak Prescott and companies. So the numbers were what? Nolan on these deals. Yeah, so the numbers for Chase, he benefited greatly from his deal coming after the Miles Garrett extension.

His deal came out to just over 40 mil per year, making him the highest paid non-QB of all time. And then Higgins deal comes out to just about a little over 28 per year. You know, he's going to sit just below that 30-mill club in the receiver market. but certainly puts him at the top of the market within that group. And as they stated there, the highest paid wide receiver two of all time. Quick time out here.

Making us who the third cowboy is, I think just that's just back in CD. Goodness gracious. I think it's the new Cavante Turpin deal. The Turpin deal? What's the Turpin deal now? He's about like four and a half. So they have that much money tied up between those two.

He's got a tiny slice of the pie. but I listen if they can get Trey Hendrickson done which it kind of feels like it feels like they will honestly because of what it sounded like they did in the beginning of this process which is just jack the price up of this guy you know Bengals fans are saying like they only know the value of their players when they're shopping them and it sounded like they wanted too much for Trey who I think is obviously an amazing player but he is in his 30s now and you're talking about like I don't know what they were asking were they asking for a one I'm not sure but supposedly the compensation they were seeking was laughable per Diana

Rossini not in those words it seems like that was kind of just a process they were putting Trey through to say hey we tried to trade you and now we're going to play hardball with you again And I kind of wonder if part of them is like, listen, last year when you held out with no guarantees on your deal, yada, yada, yada, you lost the game of chicken. And I think once he lost that game of chicken, part of the Bengals is maybe like, well, he's going to lose it again. Like he's just not that type of guy who's going to hold out the whole season or anything like that. Like, Trey Henderson loves football too much. Maybe that's what they're banking on. And maybe they can get him at a reasonable number.

the memes floating around or you know the the joke on the internet right now is like who's playing defense for the Bengals this is a year and it is akin to the Philly thing if you can draft well and you really load up on defense and you have like an eight out of ten draft you can get the ball rolling again in Sensi but you have to do that you know you talk about all this money tied up in the offense and then like impossibly trey hendricksson like right now on defense who'd you mention they got o's sideback but miles murphy starting at defensive end which is not like that's not a good sign right only 20 pressures for him all of last season um so you know not quite the production you want to see from you know if you think of it like a receiver room like a number one guy

as far as you know edge rushers go it is stressful to play a team like the bangles to say like I know their defense is terrible, but we're going to have to score 40 points. Like that's another way to do it. You know, and maybe it doesn't seem sustainable. And traditionally, that sounds like a terrible strategy, but maybe they're just embracing that strategy as a floor. Like even if you look at their team last year and they were terrible, they will expect to be better on defense this year.

Like they hit the reset button, they fired their guy. But make you remember how many games they damn near one. Yeah. I mean, they had Kansas City dead to rights. They had Baltimore dead to rights twice. Should have beaten New England week one. Remember, they'll lose week one. They always lose week one.

They always lose the first month of the season. But I mean, if you look back at last year and obviously, if you took most teams that were kind of 500 and maybe just missed the playoffs or what have you, you'd say, hey, like you're playing a big game of what if. And look how predictably this season came out. You lose the first three games. You're up and down. You lose some games you're not supposed to lose, like the Baltimore game,

like the Kansas City game. I mean, shit, the Washington game. It took Jaden Daniels coming out party to beat them. You know, they get thumped by Philly. I thought that was the game where they had no shot. And then obviously the L.A. game was just an embarrassment. The L.A. game in L.A. was one of the wildest games I've ever seen. Eight losses on the season seven by one score or less.

And I thought they lost that shootout, you know, when they hosted Pittsburgh, Fair and Square. I felt like they just made too many mistakes. And the story in all these games is going to be mistakes. They made so many. But my point is, if you look at this team and you're trying to sell yourself on the future, like running it back with the same group and hopefully improving the defense by 20%. If you can do that, they could be an 11-win team. That's the way they're thinking.

Like, that's who they were last year. They didn't execute. Even with as bad as the defense was, they made me. mistakes like any team i guess they kept them out of the dance the difference is if i apply that logic to some shitty team that hasn't been been there before this team's been in the super bowl two years ago three years ago whatever it was not two three years ago how many years ago was that four at this point but the point is you got joe burrow you've got these two receivers signed up i think hey you got p rime back little things like that that might help this offense get even

better next year. Gasecki seems like he's going to be a fixture there, right? Chase Brown was great this year. Improved the offensive line. Continue to improve the offensive line if you can, but I think the main thing you've got to do is load up on defense in the draft. And so this is maybe the most important draft in Joe Burroughs career, and it's not offense. Yeah. Keeping that core together of Chase and Higgins is certainly a better alternative to letting Higgins go, not paying Gassiki and then adding a couple above average pieces on defense. You want to roll out with the high-octane offense and take your chances on defense in the draft. You have three top 100 picks. Those can be good players. Up front, what kind of year is it in the draft for defensive line?

It sounds pretty deep with the D-line group, especially edge rushers too, which is big for them. Obviously, we talked about Miles Murphy. They need to see another step from him. and they'll also be banking on Chris Jenkins Jr. They took him the second round last year out of Michigan to take another step. He had three sacks this past year as a rookie, but definitely need more production across the board. And that's whether Hendrickson's there or not. And, you know, I really do think that's what it ends up being with Henderson,

unless they change their tune and they ask for a lot less. Because, you know, I could see an argument for letting him walk if you get premium capital that's coming down the pipe right now. Yeah. Like there's no waiting a year to enjoy the fruits of your labor and shipping tray out of town. Like you've got to get a 2025 pick in the top 100, in my opinion, because when you have a quarterback like Joe and we're this far into the experiment, like you can't, you can't, hey, a year down the line with this defense. you have to attack this defense now in the draft. Do you have any commentary on the defensive coordinator himself?

Your former coach Al Golden. Oh, it's Al Golden. I mean, not, I don't have commentary on Al as far as, I don't have commentary on Al as far as like his scheme. What if he's got a pack of young guys, though? He's probably the right guy for a group like that. That works out well. Yeah.

To your point, that's a good point. It's like, listen, if it's going to be eight rookies and, you know, six of them are going to play, meaningful snaps this year like yeah it would help a guy to have a guy that just that just coached in college and can relate to these guys and understands the dynamic of who who these guys are right now in the NIL era and what their makeup is and yada yada yada but the bottom line is like it doesn't matter if you don't nail the picks yeah and so I can't speak to what Al's going to be as a defensive coach I mean Al coach me in 2006 seven you know like I

love Al Golden. Awesome dude. Al Groh's staff was him, Bobby Diaco, Mark DeNofrio, just a bunch of psychos from the Northeast. And Al's, Al's, Al's a great dude. And he's, he's a hard ass too. And at 55 he's got a nice fade working. He looks good. He looks really good. He's got a look. Yeah. Fashion glasses. I wore those dinner last night. Oh, how to go. That might be my midlife crisis. Wow. Fashion glasses. Were they see-through in the whole whole? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow.

So, yeah, that was huge news. And, of course, Jordan Schultz broke both those stories. Jordan Schultz never has to per me and. Yeah, he just rips. He's just him. Yeah, yeah. Who's he work for? I think he's Fox Sports.

Boy, that has to really stick in your craw if you're somebody who's in the business of newsbreaking, and they got to watch Jordan Shultz land twins. crazy the other story is uh derrick stingly huge deal huge deal as you all pointed out damn near fully guaranteed it's crazy ain't bad what is his medical like perfect i've never seen that it's wild the analytics say this guy's never going to get hurt and he's going to be very productive too i i love this secondary in houston i love the c j gardner johnson add. Stingley's been a stud. And it's pretty interesting that two second generation guys reset the market and now he's leapfrogging them. But like you had Pat Sartan who got absolutely paid 24 mil

a year. And then J.C. Horn, 25 mil a year. Derek Stingley at 30. Just blew it out of the water. Ble it out of the water. Crazy. Good for him. You know, worst C. You know, worst. guys like me we're doing well i'm doing great i mean like not i'm not saying this in an but like i'm happy got everything i wanted out of my career and we got paid a lot better than the generation before us and and and we were paid too much right like we're all paid too much but these guys now you look at some of these deals i say this was zero hate in my heart zero that's hate uh yeah if here he'd say this hate but god dog dude this is yacht money but but inflation you're right i don't know if that accounts for all of this though okay it's pretty wild man i mean this is yacht money

this is g4 money like the third rusher on an NFL team yacht has got yacht money i was born a little A little too. A little too, too soon, you know? 2012, salary cap was $120.6 million. So you're telling me that when I got paid in 12, it was 12.

I would have got paid 2x that. Yeah, I mean, if we just go by the salary cap, it is more than doubled since that point, just over 10 years later. You timed it pretty well because the new CBA was when?

No question. I was the last guy of the old CBA. That's great. Well, no, Sam was. Okay. That helps a lot. Yeah.

But golly, you think about like, hey, your vet minimum contracts at the end and y'all. I'll tell you what, if the cap was the way in 17 or 16, I might not have been chasing rings. You know what I'm saying? Playing for one five a year in Philly? No chance. I'd have been a Carolina Panther. Goodness gracious. But you know what?

I always wonder when I played when we were going to make the baseball money and it's here. I mean, this feels like baseball money to me. I can remember you used to watch the baseball contracts like, damn, like, wouldn't it be nice? These guys are making that much money now,

especially QBs and such. I mean, Josh Allen's making like... 250 guaranteed, 330 max value, yeah. Good for them. But now you can't have more than 250 $50,000 in a bank account, right? That's not insured if it's over that.

How do you work that out? Spread them out, multiple accounts. Whole lot of bank account. Diversify. Diversify your bonds. Housing, uh-huh. Stocks, bonds. Yeah, bonds.

Okay. 529. Emerging markets. Yep. Real estate. Crypto, buck coin. Yeah. Cooper Cup.

headed to Seattle. I think this is a pretty simple one. It's still a lot of money, right? People were like, Cooper Cup doesn't have it anymore. And I was like, hmm. And then the next day I was like, man, he just, what? How much money did he get? Cooper Cup, three-year deal worth $45 million.

They were like, yeah, he's washed. And then they're like, yeah, here's like 50 mil over three years. I think he's going to help up there. He's because what you're going to get is a motivated vet, right? He can play the whole, like, I mean, he's playing for a division rival. That's kind of a wild thing. Like, I know he'd never say something out loud, but they definitely, like, just kind of counted him out.

And for good reason, right? Like, he hasn't been healthy, you know, as of late. He hasn't played up to his, like, early 2020 standard. I mean, we're a far cry from that. Devante Adams is an upgrade. but I think you're going to get a guy who's really healthy he's going to play his best ball when you're late in your career they always talk about my dad used to say this knowledge elevator physical elevator they pass each other in their prime so like your knowledge elevator goes up and your physical elevator goes down and he's obviously at that state where his physical elevator's here but his knowledge is getting way up here and also your motivation you're you're clear-headed he's playing with house money he's won a Super Bowl like he's in this thing to finish on his terms in the right way. Whether it's one more contract or two more deals or whatever

it is, I think it does add something to the equation when you consider the fact that L.A. was kind of like, hey, no thanks, and we're going to upgrade. I'm not saying he hates Sean McVeer or Matt Stafford. I'm just saying he's going to be motivated. And I think Clint Kubiak's offense, like it's really important that Y receivers block. He blocks his ass off. The one conversation, Nolan and I were happened was about like they still don't have a true outside threat because like json as we said can be kind of like your number one but he's a slot guy cooper cup this isn't old cooper cup he's not really a number one right at all like he he might be a number two for you um but the way that they condense the formations maybe it works out for the slot guys because you really like you really are kind of working

from a slot a slot alignment um depending on where you are in the field the way they condense these I actually think is a blocker, and in that right, they'll be able to work this thing out, and I think it's a good step in the right direction for the offense in Seattle. And the quarterback's going to need to get it out quickly, in part because there will be people in his face, and he doesn't care for people in his face. And what Cooper does very well is get open within a step or two off the line. Well, Cooper, you can definitely, like, screen game will be something that they'll rely on him for. and, you know, obviously, there's a blocker at the point of attack and all that quick game stuff.

But more than anything, I think, like, when you consider last year your wide receiver room, maybe the best player in the room was, or the most heralded player in the room was D.K. Metcalf. And probably the, you know, Lockett was the vet, but he's gone now. Like, you were going to have a room that was led by D.K. Metcalfe. And I'm not saying he's a bad guy or anything like that at all, but like he hasn't just been that kind of consummate leader kind of guy. You talk about a room now that your best player, JSN and Cooper Cup,

is a really good veteran in that room to bring along whoever they draft to be the outside guy, if that's what you're going to do. And I think, you know, it's a move in the right direction for this group. And you'll probably get his best, as I said. So another wide receiver thing that we've been talking about is Stefan Diggs has,

I love the social media warfare now that skill guys wage. It's like they'll unfollow the team that they play for or, you know, they'll unfollow a quarterback. And now Stefan Diggs, in a very skill guy move, has reactivated once deleted pictures off his Instagram. I don't know what the proper term would be for that. Unarchived. He's unarchived all his Buffalo Bills pictures that.

he took off less than a year ago. This might be akin to a you up. Hey, big head. Is this a hey big head? Oh, do you remember 0405 Facebook when it was in a relationship or not? Yeah, we were poking people. Yeah. Left and right.

Yeah. That's what this is. I poked my wife back in the day. It was like a means of first contact. No, it was like a, it was like a hey, you know. Yeah. He hit me back. Yeah.

But yeah, no, no, he reactivated all the pictures. So now people think he's going to Buffalo, or that he wants to go to Buffalo. Do we want him back in Buffalo? I don't know. If Joe Brady seemed to go away from that whole situation. I don't want him back in Buffalo. And I'm not anti-Sephan Diggs.

I, like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. It felt like to me mentally, Josh, process was really good last year. Shakir, Coleman, Palmer, Samuel. And Palmer's going to be good for them. I really do believe that. Knox and Kincaid. I think Josh found something from a process standpoint last year.

And although it might be implied that Diggs is not the same guy as he was maybe three years ago, and you'd like to think that would be baked into the whole conversation so you don't have to find him, right? like you're not pressured to get him an amount of touches and and but i would imagine that stuff was on a level disruptive you know like and i think the you could speculate on that but then when he leaves it felt like josh the process got cleaner the turnovers got cleaned up and part of that could just be like a timing thing with joe brady coming in and cleaning up his thought process or it could be the emergence of calil shakir or the tight ends how much you trust them or the run game

all that stuff but whatever it is if it ain't broke don't fix it you can certainly help right like josh palmer is a help right but bringing digs back seems to me to be a little bit more risk than reward especially when you consider in my opinion what kept them out of the dance and you could boil it down to a third and fourth down or whatever it was like he didn't hit chikir on the orbit motion or, you know, Knox drops the ball, or Kincai drops the ball on fourth down. But that defense, I like to go back to that game, that defense was not competitive.

You know, they just shipped Elam to Dallas. Douglas is a free agent. I think Dane Jackson's back. There's a reunion there. But the bottom line is you got to, you got to fix that defense. They brought in Bosa, right, which hopefully it's not another Von Miller situation where, you know, like we thought he had more juice than he did.

And obviously Bosa hasn't played a lot. But like, they got holes to fill on defense. So unless Diggs is going to play for free, I don't see the, like, I don't know what Diggs would cost off an injury at this age. but to me, even if he played for free, there'd be risk. Yeah, it's all those macro level factors you laid out, Chris. And I also think even if you just look at the skill set, kind of like what Mina mentioned on the show last week,

if you're going to add anything to this receiver room, it would be speed. You know, it's a good looking room top to bottom as far as the different flavors you have there. But if there's something you wanted to add, it would be kind of that real like... Xavier Worthy? Yeah, like something like that.

I got a guy for you, Nolan. 31 year old Brandon Cooks. Ooh, sign them up. Available. It would fit. Ceylon. I know you're bullish on this Josh Palmer. $12 million a year, three for 36.

You got to remember the numbers are totally just, they're not what you think they were. This is 2025, bro. And honestly, they see something in him. I really do think they see something to him. I think they see him as a distressed asset. And that's crazy to me, because he was just playing

with a guy with a lot of talent. But in an offense that couldn't decide what it was going to be last year. And it kind of, I felt like in the beginning of the season, they looked like they were going to be Paul Johnson's, like rambling wreck, run the ball 40 times a game. And then at the end of the year, it was like, we don't even run the ball anymore. Like, I don't know that the offense ever had an identity

that they stuck to for more than the month, right? And I think it was always a work in progress last year. I'd love to see what these guys can do together. Josh Palmer, supposedly, if you're into metrics, got open as good as anybody in the NFL last year. I'm into metrics. For Josh Palmer, eighth best man separation. Yep.

And, you know. Keon Coleman, 54th, Matt Collins, 71st, Khalil Shakir, which it is Kalil. 82nd. Yeah. So it just goes to show you. You got probably now a sudden, if you believe this shit here, which is a metric, we're into metrics.

Top 10 man separator in the league. You just got him for what? $12, $15 million a year? $3.36. You got a $300 million quarterback. You can't be paying all your wide receivers 25 million a year. there's got to be some Josh Palmer's in there. And I think what we discovered last year

is they can make it work. And hopefully this is the guy. I think in their minds, they went and got Cooper as a Band-Aid for this problem. Now this guy is a little bit more, it's a more permanent Band-Aid, right? Like younger, more permanent Band-Aid. How about a destination for Diggs

that that team that Josh Palmer was on, a team that needs a wide receiver. How about the Chargers? I kind of like that. I don't hate that. I don't hate that at all. You know, they need a couple guys. They got Mike Williams, but.

I don't hate that at all. I mean, who are the other really relevant, great teams without wide receivers right now? How about the Seahawks? Yeah. I mean, he can be their number two. How about this? How about the New York Jets?

I don't know that he'd be excited. I'm not out on Justin Fields, but What about for that? God's team there, Cowboy. Yeah, Denver. What do you think about Diggs in Denver? I like Diggs in Denver. I almost like Amari Cooper in Denver a little more.

Cooper might be, I mean. Look out, New England Patriots. No, a young quarterback. Yeah, but Drake's not going to be bothered by a Stefan Diggs. I'll tell you, he's not going to be bothered. I'm 31-year-old looking ass Bo Nix. Bo Nix is going to be like, shut the fuck up, man.

Did you see him, for the same age or so? Did you see him launching some footballs at the Nuggets and Avalanche games this weekend? Devine was like, Cortland Sutton had a face of fear. No way. Yeah, he was like, because Bo Nix launched one.

Cortland was like, oh, where's it going to land? At which game? This was at the Nuggets game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he just threw it from court's side to like into the game. threw it, through it, sweet side.

He was up in the sweet. There was a sign of balls and he was just like, Swangh. Who'd he throw it to? Just somebody in the crowd. Hopefully they had their, their swivel head.

Geez. Their swivel head. Cowboys, your number two, Marvin Mims, Jr.? Yep, that's right.

You may want to look. Devon Valet. Hey, a 27-year-old Devon Valet. He's not rookie age. He's up there. Yeah, but you know what?

He was a true diamond in the rough. Oh, yeah. Like, you really found. somebody who you know it's not often that like guys a couple years in have a Zach bond like you know yeah exactly now Velae didn't have a bond like emergence but he

had a Vela Vela Vela like emergence Vela had a Palmer like emergence there hasn't basically had this but let me let me upgrade old stuff on day there's not there's not there's not a lot going there there really isn't and we need one and it looks like we're going to go running back in the draft if we don't go wide receiver. Yeah. I saw the deal Rico Dowdell got, like Mina mentioned on the show the other day.

The Rico Dattle thing. Coming off a thousand yards season? No, I like Rico Dau. Yeah. But the point is they brought Javante Williams in. Right. Same money. Same money.

But Javante just hasn't looked the same after his injury. He's not coming off a thousand. He's a thousand yard back. I know, but I'm saying for Dallas's standpoint. Oh, yeah. Brother. Yeah. What are you doing?

it. Do you think, do you think this free agency thing? Do you think that with Jerry, how they don't like spending money, I kind of wonder if it's not so much that he doesn't have money, but it's more that he wants a lot of, to have a lot of money, you know, because you following me? Not quite. Okay. When you hear owner not spending a lot of money, you think not an organization, with a lot of cash fluidity, right? You think about some of these pores, these pores, these owners that are a little poorer, you know, they have ashtrays in their planes and shit.

No, that's not true. The Patriots just went ham on Milton Williams. But you think about like Sinci and teams with reputations like that. Jerry Jones, you think he's rich as fuck. So it's a little surprising to me that this has become their MO. And so you might think, well, maybe he doesn't have as much money as you think he does. but I'm saying on the contrary maybe he doesn't want to part ways with any of it

and he's actually more concerned about and being in the Forbes list like that's his real Super Bowl because he loves his family well yeah you learn that on the fucking show about drilling yeah lay and me terrible show yeah but no but you know what I'm saying like maybe he

have you ever considered that maybe like Jerry Jones is more interested in being one of the richest guys in the world than than one of the best football owners had not considered that no Maybe more of a saver than a spender is what you're getting at. Right. Yeah.

Just wants to be sitting on his monies. That's why they never pay anybody. God, dog, run that back? Bo Nix? Run that back? Look at son. Yo. Corlin's right.

I mean, I could kill a child. Bro, the arm angle there. You know, I'm super excited for him, bro. Why does his arm look so short? Uh-oh. Did you see that? Go back. It's a big jacket, big jacket.

No, look how short his arm is. Oh, dear. Watch. Cowboy. Oh, no. What's going on with Vodix's arm? Was that an optical illusion? I don't know.

Run that back. Oh! He might have a short arm. Take my... Take my strong arm. It's going out a little more. Okay. It's going out a little more.

I don't know. That arm looks a little different. Deformed. bro. It's also backlit. See that lighting behind it? Can you imagine if he had killed a kid with that football? But I'm so happy sitting here. You know, he's sitting there with his number one

ride receiver. He's, you know, he's a year in, he's thought of as one of the franchise quarterbacks. Like, who would have thought? Who would have thought? That he'd be chucking footballs at a Nuggets game, three-quarter release. And everybody cheering. Out of the suite, and people are like, there's Bo Nix.

Like, I would have said, you were making that up last year yeah pretty awesome pretty awesome um be chucking to step on diggs here pretty soon maybe so i like it but we digress maybe dionte johnson can we not and i totally understand like his thought process which is like i'm a legit dude i've put up legit dude production why am i not being treated like a legit dude well he also did some not so legit dude things in Pittsburgh. It wasn't just a bunch of yards. It was also a bunch of fucking head scratching mistakes.

And then like all these. So not just Pittsburgh. No, I know. All the stops after kind of like, oh. So people don't think I'm as good as I want them to think I am. Well, let me distress myself as an asset even more by acting like a total asshole. It's not going to get better.

Okay. Aaron Rogers. It's the last topic before we get to our mentions. We're going to do mentions for free agency. best flight worst flight if you don't remember mentions that's from the the regular season so if you don't watch our monday show you're just going to be confused don't ask Aaron rogers it sounds like to me he has a place he wants to be with good reason if I were him I'd want to be in minnesota and not new york or Pittsburgh. In fact, I'd probably want to be, I'd probably want to be in New York over Pittsburgh.

Think about that. Neighbors? Tracy, left tackle, you know, like day ball, day ball, who to me, Brian seems like a kind of guy who could, who could work with Rogers. You know, like, Tomlin, I feel like at some point Tomlin my big boy Rogers and he might not like that Yeah and Arthur Smith would put him under center And Arthur Smith would put him under center Well the scheme doesn't work as well

But or he might have to put him in the gun Which doesn't feel like his his offense right And then you've got two wide receivers outside Who Seem like they're going to be a lot to handle And you're playing in a division With one Two defenses that can take your head off

And the other one like it's probably going to be dog shit but they could draft a million guys do you want to play miles garret every week do you want to play you know the marlin humphreys of the world and the you know the matabike's of the world the the the the fucking you know the the list goes on okay or do you want to play in the nfc east where philly just lost half their defense yeah the commanders defensively are a respectable group, but don't scare anybody at this point. Lost in pieces as well. And then the other football team, Dallas, the Dallas Cowboys is the Dallas Cowboys. Like, I honestly feel like if you put a gun to my head and said, hey, you got to go play quarterback for

the Giants or the Steelers. And this, no offense to the Steelers, but like this is not your typical Steelers team. They don't have a dominant defense. unless it becomes a dominant defense over the offseason here. And the offensive line isn't anything that you get excited about, although they've been working on it. You lose Najee Harris, depending on how you feel about that. Warren's your guy. I don't know.

Like, I'd rather be in New York, I think, because of the division you're in and because of the upside of having that number one wide receiver. And am I crazy? No. because I don't know that Minnesota's an option which is I think what we're getting to being the main issue

you know I think expectations would be lower too you don't have to go 9 and 8 plus this franchise has been bad for a long time you would be viewed as a bridge quarterback so go out and ball out play free on the other hand Minnesota

has all the things you want easy media the chill coach great players division that maybe you can win you had a chance to win it this past year with Sam Darnold and for for Aaron Rogers in his head

as bad as he's played relative to you know what he's used to being throughout the prime of his career is like in his head he's got to be like man Sam Darnold almost won the division there I can win the fucking division because you know that's the way his mind works but I don't know that Minnesota wants him there

and I don't blame him and it's not that I don't think his ceiling is still very high but you seem to love this quarterback J.J. McCarthy and maybe you want a year for him to sit healthy maybe you want him to sit for two years maybe you know he's not ready but do you think that it's going to be a good thing for the culture of the team

to bring in Aaron Rogers for J.J. McCarthy is sitting in the room with him for a year like I don't know, could be. It could be, but it feels like the elephant in the room would always be so big that it'd be hard to really go through the process of learning and onboarding this kid as an NFL quarterback. It's just such a distracting presence. And I don't know that it raises the ceiling of your team enough. Now, this team's gotten a lot more physical.

You know, they've added guys on both sides of the ball. it feels like Chicago and Minnesota's like kind of an arms race to to catch up to the lions in the physicality department. Right? I think they also look at it like, hey, if we get more physical, we can run the ball in the lions too because I don't think they're ready for that. Right. Like, wishful thinking maybe. But the point is, I don't know that he works in in, in O'Connell's scheme either. Does he?

no it'd be a similar problem to make him mention with arthur smith and on top of it i think the kevin o'connell said i love kevin o'connell but you know how that's going to play out bro like kevin o'connell is a quarterback and he's younger than rogers that does factor in like if i was a defensive end and i was a coach and i was a really good coach former player 40 years old or so and one of the best defensive linemen ever play who was a bit of a who was a little bit of a distraction

the last couple years wanted to come play like I would feel like at some point it would feel incumbent upon me to like seed some of the control and power to the better quarterback who's older than me more famous and it just seems

like their personalities are way different. So I do worry about like what that would do to KOC. You know, like you kind of a, like I'm imagining when things go wrong that he's going to feel weird telling Aaron Rogers what to do. Is that, is that weird to wonder?

No. I think you're right. I think it's a situation where a guy like Ryan Dable would be like, all right, buddy. All right, buddy. Like, fuck off. Here's what's happening. I've been in New England. Yeah. And also like I kind of like I kind of like your spots on McAfee. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Maybe. If this doesn't go while I'm looking for work next year. Yeah, like it's burn the ships mode. Kevin O'Connell, they're building something there. And so, like, that's my point. It's not like they're desperate.

You know, New York, all for it. Cool. The best fit for Aaron Rogers is desperation. Yeah. Giants got that. And it's the Giants. Yep. Giants are the best fit, man.

And so if he's waiting on this Minnesota thing, it feels to me like maybe Minnesota doesn't they share my sentiment which is like maybe not worth it at this point in our journey you know another thing that's interesting is is it me or does Rogers you know how you become your dad far fanfic yes dude yeah you know how you like as hard as you try not to become your dad you become your dad and I'm not saying his dad is Brett far but like it feels like the whole journey is just this would be the cherry on top because I mean are the Saints going to be in the nFC championship this year is it is it is this going to be that weird but uh it is it is

kind of weird like I wonder if Aaron's I know he's thought about this and maybe it's the driving force between the whole between the whole you know for him following the candy land board here. Like, and it leads to Minnesota, and he's always just wanted to be, and he's going to defraud somebody in retirement. I think because of- He's going to defraud a wellness center. I think truly because of that, it's another reason why he would not want that situation.

I know you have more pieces there, but to be linked forever. He wants to go. Why else do you think he's like, you know what I think is just as likely as him going to New York, him retiring yeah because I don't know that a guy like Aaron Rogers is willing to like eat a shit sandwich year after year here hey somebody that doesn't

no no but like somebody that doesn't that claims to love a lot more about life than football you're at a point in your life where like to be honest bro if Rogers didn't if he wasn't a polarizing figure most people would be sitting here and saying

you've done everything bro you've done everything you could possibly want to do you won a Super Bowl you won the MVP I would put him as probably you know how they say best and greatest he might be Tom Brady's the greatest quarterback of all time Patrick Mahomes is chasing him Aaron Rogers might be the best quarterback of all time and by that I mean like show me what you can do with this football you know what I mean like impress me with this football and some of the best throws I've ever seen some the best plays. I think that would that would count for a lot, but he's just become such a polarizing figure that now like the lens is totally different that we view him through. I think

most people would tell him to go home, man. You popped your Achilles two years ago. You came out last year. You still look like the guy at times, but like the floor was also really low. So there is an element of like, what are you chasing? Especially for somebody who doesn't seem to love football as much everybody else. Like there's, if, if, and I'm not questioning his love for the game or his work ethic, but what I'm saying is like, there's a lot of room in his life for other things. And you're now 40, what, 41, 42? Well, perhaps it's the Ron Burgundy meme, I don't believe you. Your life is consumed by football, regardless of all the other things. Right. And so you're trying to make, you're trying to make

all the other things seem important when, when really the thing that hurts you at night is the fact that haven't gotten the second ring or that the Green Bay thing didn't work out or whatever like when your head hits the pillow like that and I don't doubt it because like fuck dude I think we all have regrets and we all look back and like I wish it had gone differently but I wonder if that's what's driving him you know like he's still trying to make up for the ending in Green Bay which wasn't great but if he just ride off into the sunset and not say anything everybody would still be talking about Green Bay yeah and Legacy's tough, man, when you're a quarterback. Say, go ahead.

If it's in Minnesota, you got to play a pretty good Green Bay team twice a year. Yeah, that too, bro. That too. Legacy danger. That too. I mean, you play in that division, you're either playing out in the cold or playing on turf. You know, and I don't know to be the best for his body. You saw the way the offensive line ended up last year.

Now, they were down Darisaw and that sort of thing. But that was a fucking, the floodgates were open for Sam Darnal at the end. to you. This guy's not going to be able to move any better. And, you know, you're in a division where, in my opinion, Chicago is ascending in a big way, and it's not just about the signings. I think the quarterback's going to be a lot better next year. And then Detroit's still Detroit. Green Bay is still really physical. It just seems like, although all the toys are there, what good did the toys do Sam Darnold at the end of the year last year? Detroit is built like a football team.

Green Bay is a big physical football team. Chicago's getting more physical. That division is going to stay tough. I would be in New York if I had a choice. I know Eagles fans who were listening to like, what, but we're in the NFCs. It's not even about that. It's not even about that.

Leaky neighbors. Yeah. Maybe entering prime Devante Adams. From a leak neighbor. I go to hell. That's right. Six foot, 6-1, 2-10,

Devante Adams, great footwork. Yeah. Off the line, separation can't touch me. Adams puts into the, Aaron Rogers puts into the bread basket. Is this an admission by Adams

that he's had enough that he's not like, yeah, I'll wait around to see where he's going? Yeah, I think so. Because, like, New York could use another Y receiver. Yeah.

Pits, he could have been that guy in Pittsburgh. I, you know, not Minnesota, but anyways, maybe he already knows that maybe he knew all along, like, listen, it's Minnesota or nowhere, Devante. So if you don't like Minnesota, because there's too many mouths to feed there, then just go on down to L.A. and I'll see you in the next life. Yep. You mentioned the Eagles a second ago.

What do you think of Makai Bechtin heading on to the West Coast? Well, I think it's, it helps that they got the dude from, uh, from, from Houston. Green, the guard, who's still pretty young. They're looking to him like a distressed asset. And like we said, going into that negotiation period, and it played out the way we thought it would, right? When they made the trade and they got green, people were like, well, you know, what about Mackay?

We're negotiating with him. It gave them great leverage to, you know, allow Mackay to walk out the door. And, you know, you could say, and I thought Mackay was great this year, And I really enjoyed getting to know that guy. I always had a, you know, I was pulling for him because Joe drafted him in New York, had injuries, couldn't control those things, maybe out of position.

Expectations kind of crushed him a little bit in New York and then, you know, gets the, gets the lifesaver thrown to him. And he's down in Philly, coached by Jeff Stoutland, like his whole career changes. Richmond kid. My kids once spent a morning there on spring break. Yeah, I know. Jumping around. That's right.

Fuck. Like that guy. I think they jumped around. So the point is how he's good, man. He had a contingency plan and now it's going to work out. And you also have Steen as well, who's played some meaningful snaps. Like what the sky's not falling with the offensive line because Beckton left. It's just the standard of that offensive line is to have five deep, like, good players.

And so they just, they can get that out of green maybe with an offseason of development. And just by, okay, you know what playing opposite Justin Jefferson does? You know what playing next to Lane Johnson does? Makes you worse. No. Because he's doing so much. No, no, no. Okay.

No, no, no. It's the same thing. It actually might be even more important to play next to a guy like that because Lane Johnson is left alone as much as anybody in the NFL. and so the guy that plays next to lane johnson i thought beckton did some awesome things last year he's in the catbird seat whoever it is okay yeah so they're gonna they're gonna work that out okay let's get into the uh the mentions i'll go first best flight start off of best flight it's mike william mike williams headed back to l a week wide receiver class okay so Let's go get a known commodity.

Let's get a guy that our quarterback loves. Big Target. Another thing where it's like, nobody's going to want to play harder than Mike Williams. He is like Bill Murray in that fucking Christmas movie, dude. Uncle Bob. Nah, the one where he dies and it's terrible. And then he comes back and he's like, oh, this is pretty awesome. Let me act.

Let me be on my best behavior. Scrooge. Scrooge. Or it's a wonderful life. any of those theme movies. Mike Williams going to fucking New York. No, not what about Bob? Okay.

What about Bob's more like when Michael Bennett and I played together? Which role were you? I was like the doctor. You know, I was like, I understand you guys like this guy a lot, but he's making my life a pain in the ass. I got to give him a ride home every day and shit. He doesn't want to practice, but we're still best friends. No, but I think Mike Williams leaving, he got to see the other side, right? Catching balls from Aaron Rogers being on the wrong side of the red line, going to Pittsburgh,

catching balls from Russ, playing in that offense. Like I said it was the worst year of his career, had to be happy to come back to L.A. And, you know, like much cheaper than what he was going to be to sign before. So it all just works out. 2022 when they signed him a couple years ago. Supposedly Telesco texted Herbert that they were going to re-sign Mike, and Herbert ran upstairs to make sure that it was really happening because he loves Mike so much. So this is the best flight situation through and through.

Yeah, that's a good answer. Sometimes the best plan is a canceled plan. Boy, isn't it. Best flight is a canceled flight. I'm going to go Ronnie. Stanley. Yes. Staying in Baltimore.

Yes, good one. I think it's a huge signing. He gets 60 mil over three years and gets to stay home. Hey, I took a flight to New Orleans about six weeks back, still feeling the after effect. Dude, how many weeks did it take? Because it took like 10 days for me. Yes, still, perhaps. Really?

Yeah, about 3 o'clock every day. My body seems to break down. Yeah. I take 2 Advil. and it could be New Orleans related. So Ronnie Stanley. Kitting on board with this dying thing. Yeah, memento mori.

It's like a slow shutdown, dude. I can feel it. Like they hit the button when you turn like 38 and it takes 42 years or so for the computer to shut down all the way. Do you know what I have in 80 minutes? Prostate exam. A root canal.

No, yeah, well. I've never had one. I haven't looked into what it is whatsoever when the dentist, when the endodontist told me what she would be doing, I just, you know, it sounds good, it wasn't blocked at all. Yeah, I usually do that too.

Watch it, there's like, I'll send you a video on Twitter, watch it after. I'll show you what they do to your tooth after. But you'll be under, you'll be under, right? Yeah, I said I wanted to be heavily sedated. I asked if they would play an audio recording of a John Grisham book. he's been roasting john grisham all morning because he had that uh basketball breakfast here in

charlesville yeah a little where john john and him kind of get up there and yeah i'm just playing he does a little routine highly successful author would you say about him he's 70 years old but his head shots only 30 i said well no you've told it so it'll not not sound as great uh john turned 70 this year his promotional photo turned 35. Room went crazy. Yeah, that's pretty good. Room went nuts. That's pretty good.

You've never seen... Tell the other one about the books. Tell about the books. They brought me up. The last line of their bringing me up was... And he owns every single John Grisham book ever published because, you know, as you said, we needle each other. And then I take my seat and I said, yeah,

It's always good to have a little kindling line around. And then the moment after, I was like, oh, book burning. Burning books is generally bad. But he said to me, he then said, you know, don't worry about it. The words in those books are too big for you anyway. Yeah, a little riven back and forth. Shout out John Grisham.

Shout out John Grisham. My favorite book of his is probably time to kill. yourself no it's a movie they adapted it to a movie so it's a more consumable for me okay yeah it's a suicide joke

sorry little punchy I got a serious procedure coming up it's like a non-sequent or two because well you said I'm getting used to this like I'm coming around of this dying thing I didn't say I want to do it myself

I'm sorry. Kind of let things take their, you know? I'm sorry. Pelican brief. Like Pelican pretty long. That takes hundreds of pages. Cowboy. Speaking of death real fast, I heard this thing the other day.

Someone said they believe that what you're afraid of in your current life is what killed you in your past life. Oh. So I'm terrified of snakes. maybe I got marked by a snake in a previous life. People. Yeah. Me too. Yeah.

People. I think, I think, Chris, you got killed by your phone. Yeah. I was going to say, did somebody bludging me with an iPhone 12? Did I have too many fucking requests? You were actually... Come through on my phone. You were whoever Alexander Graham Bell was competing against to create the phone.

Probably. And theirs didn't win the... Yeah. win the race yeah i don't know what else i'm afraid of anymore just bring it on right right um i'm reading a book lost city a z oh you know that one yeah yeah it's about a it's a place in brazil that uh you know people have been after this lost city made a movie because a lot of the amazon is still completely undiscovered and you know this little death wish of mine i'm like maybe i should go try to find all these other, you know,

maybe I should find the Lost City. Now I'm only 30, 40 pages in. So no spoilers. Yeah, yeah. But thousands of people have died doing this. Yeah, oh yeah. Seems like a good way to go out. Yeah.

I think the problem with going to the Amazon, like, you're like, oh, we're going to get murdered one way. There's like a hundred other ways before that one way that's going to get. You got to opt in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Opt in to surprise death. Yeah. If there's an untimely,

death is is like a bleacher report type site going to pull like 11 12 clips be like well he's asking for it what do you mean oh me talking yeah or is it going to be so sad and serious that we're not going to oh i think the internet would pull those yeah yeah yeah the bleach funny captions and stuff probably those scumbags at deadspin probably well yeah pieces of shit does that even exist anymore i i don't i don't go there i used to go there if dead spin was a book i would would burn it. Terrible publication. Kinling.

Hard to say the word kinling as a punchline. I decided to drop the D. Let's get to worst flight. All right. I went Kenny Pickett. He had that whole Chase Daniel path opening up. Riches, Super Bowl titles,

nothing to do. You know, my third year in St. Louis, I thought about joining the military on the topic. I was like, yeah. Maybe I should go get into one of these global conflicts. I'm serious now. I believe you.

I think I'll do the lost city in the Amazon. Go ahead. You were talking about Kenny Pickett. And now I understand Ward and Sanders are currently still on the board, but might have to be starting quarterback in Cleveland. I mean, what's worse than expectations? Nothing.

I mean, I think the Cleveland thing is going to be one of the most interesting situations in the league. I think when you're looking at the draft right now, and maybe it's skipping ahead to a worse seat, I'll burn this one, but talking about the draft, Mayo man might have the worst seat because I do think they're going to go quarterback with one.

Look at all the beefing up on the office. offensive line they're doing Nolan who have they signed already including an addition by moving lathe them to right tackle as you mentioned reid like they're shoring up that offensive line yeah you bring dan more in a left tackle solid player and then and that that'll be what allows you to move jacy over to right and then also the kevin zitler signing for them at guard i think was a big upgrade um you know for whatever it's worth you look across the board from Moore to Skronsky to Cushenberry, Zitler

and then Latham for whatever it's worth is probably the best offensive line in the AFC South following the Colts losses of Ryan Kelly and Wilfries and then the Texans O'Line being in flux so yeah I think you're right I think everything's kind of being set up for

a rookie QB to come to town yeah I mean and you mentioned Cushenberry he's another member of that LSU National Championship team in 2019 that so far in free agency over the last 24 hours has made $666 million. Wild. Crazy. Devlish.

Real devilish. Shit jumped out of me. So anyways, you had worse flight already. Kenny Pick it. Who else is a titan? Who else? Johnny Hecker. Oh, he's a titan?

Oh, good. I didn't see that. 35 years old now. he can punt until he's 50 probably um worst flight i'm gonna go to the patriots um what's up with the team plane i missed this whole thing while i was i was out they did the whole team report card thing and they said uh the team plane's terrible they said they have ashtrays in the armrest which to me it sounds like that plane's like old enough to be dangerous yeah because like when were they smoking on airplanes we were kids in the eight

80s? Well, yeah, 80s, right? When did they stop smoking on airplanes, Reed? They got an eff in travel. And I can remember when I was a patriot, the thing that I really remember being awesome was the travel. Now, I don't know if they switched planes since our team, but I can remember complimenting the way we traveled, not only the plane, but the way they seated the plane. They let the veterans sit up front, the whole thing. I didn't think they spared a single expense. And I was talking around on this pod and one of the few texts I got from Bill after I left was like thanks for complimenting our travel that was really cool of you and I wasn't lying so for me to see that this plane it was smoking on US domestic flights was banned in 1990 any flight any flight touching the

US territory 9 2000 so this is either an antiquated plane or plane from like Pakistan. This plane, no Wi-Fi, still has, as you mentioned, still has the smoking. That's crazy. They were purchased. They have two of them purchased for $10 million from... What?

From... 10 a pop? Yeah. Purchased from American Airlines for 10 million. Unclear if that's 2 a pop or 10... I think that's $5 million a plane, dude. Yeah. Holy shit.

This is like going to Dollar General for a Boeing 760. seriously just put a wrap on it you mean to tell me that um the fucking

the fucking defensive tackle who just signed with the commanders from South Carolina giovon kinlaw by way of San Francisco Javon Kinlai you're telling me Javon Kinlaugh can afford like four

four big fucking airplane not not yacht money anymore it's Boeing 767 seriously these planes are pieces of shit if I was if I was on the Patriots I would strike I'm not getting on a plane like that players also feel that their travel schedule is not very efficient players said our plane is the worst thing size space

safety it is not conducive to preparedness for athletic performance it sounds like the plane sucks and that's news to me because bill had that thing man it was awesome bevel conway dk mccaff in pittsburg i think he's going to look great in that uniform you're right there's nobody i mean like he might be the most menacing looking stealer of all time as he picked a number no i don't want to i know there's some steelers fans who were going to be like yo uh lavan kirklin i'm not saying like true if you had no context for who the football player was and you just were like walking down the street and you saw dk mack calf six foot six dark visor muscles on muscles looks like an avatar

bro he's gonna be wearing one of the most iconic uniforms in football he's going to be wearing the number four as well he's going to look pretty cool all right

boasted of buffalo too boasts is going to look cool in buffalo might be their best white edge since aaron shovel buffalo fans remember him I loved aaron shovel bro he was awesome

nobody knows who he is 80 career sack I'm worried that you're not going, I'm not worried. I think you're not going to agree with me on this one. Cowboy, I just texted you the picture. You can find it on the internet too. I like these Jets Unis. I like Justin Fields' vibe, his aura.

He's with you. Thank you. I like, and I like the number seven for Justin Fields. I did a little homework here. Here were his choices. Numbers four, seven. eight, 16, and 17.

He opted for seven. I think it's dope. Another visor guy. No, he looks cool. He definitely looks cool. It just does it for me too. Yeah. I'm with you.

Yep. That's good enough for a couple wins right there. He was in Dubai when the news broke of his his new deal. I saw a picture. He was at sort of a

Benny Hana's kind of thing. You know? And he was with Michael Parsons, Jordan Love, Bejohn Robinson, and Kyle Pitts all in Dubai. There must be an NFL like trip. Like sign up, like, it's like the high school trip. Like spring break, but the NFL puts it on it. It's like sign up. I don't want to say it is because like most people probably be like, hey, you idiot,

they just go to the base for a USO tour. But like, I'm not really sure. It's not a Benny Hanna. There's just sparklers. but you can imagine if it was and so he's with dudes from other teams at this table that's right interesting i don't know what they were doing over there together dubai that's one place i'll never go just doesn't appeal to me agreed like at all dude co-sign whoa everybody's so rich awesome now me less so because i had to fly to dubai and stay in

buy. All right. Let's go to Best Seat because I don't have an anti. Do you have an anti? I do. Who is it? Big time. Oh, who is it? Najee Harris in the Chargers Uni. Really? There needs to be a speedster at running back in that

uni. This is all white. Not a thumper. He's all white. It's all white. He's going to look too thick. Correct. You need like a Jamir Gibbs type at running back in that Chargers uni. You might be right. Devon A. Chan, if you will. You might be, I will. Type in that uni.

I've the signing is fine he was taking shots at the Steelers resources uh with the facility and that sort of thing it's quite interesting best seat best seat mo cheeks do you see that no uh marie's cheeks yeah yeah okay so back in the day natalie gilbert was 13 years old and sung the national anthem now you've probably seen this right where she was really struggling through it yeah and mo cheeks came and helped her yeah mo cheeks who's now an assistant coach for the New York Knicks was in town and they were playing the Blazers and Natalie Gilbert came back 26 years later age 39 and sung the national anthem again. Wow. And crushed it. She sounded awesome. And Maurice Cheeks is sitting there like a proud dad, dude. Look at him. It's one of

the most altruistic things I've ever seen somebody do. Yeah, that's cool. You can tell Mo Cheeks is not up there trying to get some shine. He's just like, let me help this little girl who's struggling through the national anthem. Yep. And now, over a quarter century later, she's back. She learned the words. And she smoked it. That's awesome.

I think the moment was too big for her the first time. And Mo Cheeks was there. So best seat, Mo Cheeks. Back to the NFL. Best seat Kyle You's check. He got a fake funeral, dude. He got the fake funeral treatment, which is the best thing in football, where you get cut. And everybody's like, oh my God, I love you.

I love you, Kyle. Let me tell you all the stories about all the ways you've affected my life as a fan. And all his teammates are like, oh, my God, dude, you're just the best. Yep. I can't believe he's dead. And then he's back, $8 million, two years. Yeah, we'll sign the tight end from Jacksonville and bring back Kyle used check. Best seat.

My best seat is Cowboy Reed. Didn't have to work. Nope. Hufanga. Oh, yeah. Greenlaw? Mm-hmm. I like the,

I like the club, man. Your old, old guy? I don't like that. Okay. That might be an anti-bevel. Yeah. Like,

coming from San Francisco, no offense. No, no, agreed. Like, it's going to look, I mean, but like Greenlaw and Hufanga, like switching from that uniform to that uniform, like, that's that. uniform is just not like it can hit

our uniform can hit yeah when you write the fucking throwbacks yeah yep yeah uh but it there it can miss it sure can miss

you can look like utep yes little little on the weeks we look like utep not so much little push broom stripe you got off your side yeah

so so so one more best seat Minnesota's linebackers okay they're sitting there and they're like holy shit they brought Jonathan Allen up here who else they bring up they signed another defensive tackle on hardgrave yeah Hargrave the same day you bet two guys who have proven a lot in this league that can still play I mean like Allen's production is dipped over the last

couple of years but uh Minnesota wasted no time in beefing up the offensive and defensive line really with Kelly and fries and now Allen and uh and and hardgrave so you know you talk about like a team getting stronger and the guys that are going to benefit are obviously guys behind these guys. I mean, that's guy for pace and those cats, they're pretty excited. Mattelis, the whole gang of guys that play on the second level for the, for the, for the, for the, Blake Cashman. They're, they're going to have a lot of fun with these guys in front of them. And Harrison Smith, he's got another year. He's back. He's back for just a cool 14 million or whatever it was. A couple of your best answers right there. It's really well done. It's pretty easy. Thank you.

it's pretty fucking easy to come back for just one more when they're like hey yeah here's another 15 it was way harder to come back for just one more back in the 90s 10 10 million Paris 10 point 10 mil 10 mil nothing to shake a stick at either worst seat hoss reddick hmm fuck yeah well i think he's actually going to end up in a really happy place and he's going to play well this year. I think I would assume, listen, the word in Philly was just not bought into the whole, the whole group mentality. You know what I'm saying? I mean, part of that is just sometimes if you want to stay on a great team, you got to take less. You have to be. And that's the

reality. And he and he decided, hey, I'm going to hold out in New York. He held out with the same deal that he took this year on the table and now he ends up with that very same deal. So when I wrote this out, I said worst seat, but in all honesty, it might not be the worst seat when you think about it because was it worth sitting out and not actually experiencing most of that Jets season? Yeah. Flipside, there's an alternate reality where he's a Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagle. I know.

It is kind of worst seat, but the worst seat started when he decided, hey, I don't want to be part of this Philly thing. Yep. And then had to go to New York. But like, this is actually maybe a worst seat turned best seat because this could catapult his career back onto the right track. Yeah. In my opinion, because he hasn't forgotten how to rush, man.

He's going to play next to, you know, Vita Vaya and the Avi. I like the Avi. I like the Avi. So, I mean, you talk about a group now where they were really lacking an edge rusher. And, uh, here you go. That's what he does. So maybe best seat, maybe worst seat, depending on how you look at it. And, you know, like I had.

old players like myself, but I'm not going to complain again. I'm just talking about players who are older and are looking at these deals. When these deals weren't on the table, this was an interesting tweet that Nolan sent me earlier from front office sports when Jack Nicholas won the first players championship in 1974, he earned $50,000. Rory McElroyd just won the 2025 players championship and earned a PGA tour regular season record $4.5 million. That's the way it goes in sports. Well, the money goes up, you know, generally. Yep. Money changes generally as well.

But I wonder if adjusted for inflation, 50K is 4.5 million. I don't think so. Hard to know. Hard to know? Yeah. I don't have the calculator. Yeah, I don't have the app. You have a worst seat?

Worst seat, these teams in need of a receiver, we've talked about it. There are a bunch of them, New England, Los Angeles Chargers. Denver, New York Jets. It's just getting late early at that receiver party in a not-so-receiver-laden draft. Could be in Pittsburgh. I mean, for the same reason with quarterback, obviously we've already hit it, but like,

ugh, if they end up with nobody... That'd be bad. You're right, though. The draft is not, I mean, from what I... I don't watch as much college football, but people talking about this wide receiver draft, like it's just not the one. So, if you missed out, you really missed out.

That's a helpless feeling. Yep. It's kind of like the impending doom feeling after a fantasy draft, which I'll never do again. Oh, I've retired. Congratulations. Freeing, I bet. Oh, it feels so good.

Feels so good. Fly on the wall. Minshu and Mahomes in the same quarterback room. I don't know that people aren't making a big enough deal about this. I miss that. Isn't Minshu in Kansas City? That's wild. It was very under the radar.

It was one of the Saturday morning drop. Minshu and I want to play you. What I think it would sound like. Minch you. This is my fly on the wall. All right? All right. This is what I think it would sound like.

He called me and told me you're throwing grenades down here south of the border. I got mascalade. Vomanosaki, Pronto, Vato. Oh, that's when you see you. You see me. Yes, sir. Yeah. You got to trust me.

I'm not down here to tick a fucking ball. I hope not. I chase my dream. Awesome. It's just from eastbound and down. If you remember when Kenny Powers was in the Mexican League and Matthew McConaughey was the Texas Scout and came down to see him and kept dangling

playing for the Rangers in front of them, and he was like, nah, but if you improve a little bit, you can come to Myrtle Beach. Honestly, like, if two actors had to do voiceovers for these two quarterbacks, it would be Danny McBride and Matthew McConaughey, dude. honestly

biopic Danny McBride Matthew McConaughey did you watch the Bradley Cooper episode of Gemstones no I honestly I skipped gemstones

it's worth watching that one okay the first episode Goggins is in Gemstones shit yeah he is fuck yeah he is is that what he says a lot in that?

No that's me yeah well no I just think it's gonna be super interesting with these two guys in the same meeting room um

what do to talk about mostly. I can just see Minchu acting like he's interested in Taylor Swift. Like, oh, cool. I can't picture they're getting along. Not that they wouldn't get along. Oh, I picture them getting along pretty well. I can't picture the...

Minchu and Mahomes? Oh, I picture them getting along pretty well. I can see it being entertaining. Very entertaining. I think they're going to get along well. St.L. Memorial, let's go, Howie Roseman, even in a cycle where, there's no big splash right you know that big splash is like taking care of Zach Bonn and that sort of thing but look at all the comp picks they ended up with in 2026 did I read 12 picks in the 2026

draft I think five in the top 100 five top hundies yep and these are all comp picks as a result of things like Mackay Beckton um and so when you add that to the fact that just a little thing like the uche deal spread the cap hit out over like four years with void years like it's just yeah he's just always doing a little he's just always fucking with stuff and then every year you're like oh wow that's a additional perk of having having howie rosam as a gym they have those moments pop up all the time so eagles may not be they might they might not be the scariest team on grass this year because of the defensive departures but again like 2026 they're going to load up on young talent again

this is what's called sustaining an organizational run yeah the load up on young town on the defensive side and you give guys like like you mentioned before Chris Morrow Joe Moe Jailix Hunt these guys have opportunities to step up this year so alignment everything just seems to be an alignment everything seems to be like planned out um And even the knee-jerk move seemed to work. So, Howie Roseman, STL Memorial. I went Justin Reed, safety, NFL.

He's now a New Orleans saint, which is different than being a chief. However, the saving grace is that he's from Louisiana. Yeah, that helps. Like that guy. Yeah, Justin Reed's cool. Maybe now balling in obscurity in New Orleans. For sure.

But he got the bag, hometown. That's great. Yep. Speaking of Chiefs, Wharton got 54. Three years, $54 million. And I thought he played really well. St. Louis guy playing for the Chiefs. Good for him.

That's just a general good for him. Good for you. Game ball. I guess I give the game ball because activity, any activity is like, all activity is good activity in the first week of free agency. Because everybody was like, oh, my God, look at shock and all. Look at what the bear. are doing oh my god I think it's probably the bears not saying that I necessarily think they're all going to work out the best but they're going for it and you have to do that you absolutely have

to do that and I think also polls doesn't have a long leash anymore so you have to be aggressive look at what our guy in indy did I mean he went out and invested in that defensive backfield immediately with guys like ward and bynum Chris ballard immediate commitment to burn the ships because it's that kind of situation for him. Fuck, he brought in Danny Dimes. Hollow Man Anthony Richardson when Danny Dimes Jones is viewed as a help. Well, I don't know that people are viewing him as a help, maybe internally, but everybody outside the building is probably making fun of the fact that somebody signed Danny Dimes. Which kind of sucks. I feel like he's one of those QBs that's not as bad as people think he is. Because of his draft status, everybody like

turn him into this like the worst person ever, the worst player ever. Who knows? He might have to play some meaningful football for them next year. And I think the team should be improved. Like it has to be. Same thing with Zach Wilson. Zach Wilson ended up in Miami. It's kind of under the radar thing. I'm not saying it's going to work out. But what I am saying is like he's going to play down there at some point. Whether Tua gets hurt or whether they have to turn to him. Last year they played like three or four guys outside of Tua, and they had a terrible time. So they're definitely not just, it's not like an afterthought, there's a reason, whoever they took as their QB2 this year, or whoever they went out and got to fill that room, they expect

him to play. And it's a very, like, you know, there's intent anytime you sign a backup quarterback, but the Miami backup quarterback is as important as any quarterback in the league, as any backup quarterback in the league. And it's also one that you're pretty sure is going to play. And it's coming off a season that Miami should have been the playoffs if they could have gotten better play out of their backup quarterbacks.

So Zach Wilson, I mean, who knows? Maybe he sticks down there and maybe he does a good job. I'll give a game ball to the exact same situation that you gave yours to, just a different club. Joe Shane,

only because the additions of Javon Holland and Paulson Adibo, Now I'll make you think you're competent. I'll make you think you're only the quarterback away, which is quite the big piece. That defense is going to be fun. Yeah. Evens is going to be fun.

I thought the Pats did a good job too. I mean, like, listen, again, it could blow up in their face. Like Milton Williams could end up being a really good Robin, not a Batman, right? Like, that could be the book on him in a year or two. But they went out and got him. I really like, from a cultural standpoint, the Spillane thing. Landry is a guy who he got hurt. He's still been productive very quietly.

People kind of wrote him off, but he's still productive as fuck. Do you see what number Spillane's wearing? What's he wearing? 14. No way. 14. That's cool. I mean, they were very active.

And then you got your teams like the Cowboys who aren't doing much of anything. Could they sign? Well, they signed a long snapper. I can't remember his name. Trent C. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a big deal. got him locked up.

So anyways, it's just all over the map. And of course, does this stuff interest me? Absolutely it does. But this is all just on paper. We don't know what these teams are going to be. Just because somebody signed doesn't mean it's a good signing. You know,

I can remember when Buffalo got Von Miller, right? Like, I'm looking at Bose's name on the page. And, like, you know, I think most people understand that he hasn't played a ton over the last couple of years. But, like, there are signings. like that where you know the ceiling is really high and the floor is high too because of the player's age and that sort of thing um i just don't want to get out over our skis and analyzing the

final product here we haven't even gotten to the draft i mean and and when we get at the draft we're not going to know who those players are until the fall so uh again it's just march but that's where we are and now it's time for college basketball making about college basketball because I haven't watched a single minute this year, although I did go to Virginia game in person. I think there's still capital M madness in this tournament, but I think the cream of the crop this year is so far head and shoulders above everybody else, all right? So most every team in college basketball has a bunch of new faces this year and they did the prior year. That's a new world we live in. I have a working theory that begins. I have a working

theory that because no teams as presently constructed can look back on past tournament success, that the teams that got elite and stayed elite in these five months this season are going to have a better shot in this format of beating other teams that only came together five months ago, as opposed to in the past when we had great teams be together for three or four years. So you're saying if the team has stayed together over the over the course of this past season. I'm saying the competition is going to be less than. Right.

So I think four one seeds are going to make the NC2A Final Four for the second time in history. It only happened in 2008 when it was Kansas, Memphis, UNC, UCLA. All right, Kim Palm, listen up. measures offensive and defensive efficiency, right? Since 99, every single team has had a top 20 offense and top 20 defense, except for one year, 2014 UCon. There are six such teams this year with the top 20 offense and top 20 defense. Okay. Tell me St. John's.

The Duke Blue Devils. Florida Gators, Houston Cougars, Auburn Tigers, Tennessee Volunteers, and the Iowa State Cyclones. Now, Iowa State is not healthy, so you can scratch off Iowa State. Okay. But one of those other five is going to be your national champion. Unless they're 2014, Connecticut.

13 of the past 17 national champs, including the University of Virginia, has been a one seat. More one seeds. It stands to reason. That Tennessee will not. Or than any other seed. Fuck Tennessee.

Don't overthink it. If you like Tennessee, I don't hate it. No, I don't. Tennessee? I don't hate it. I got to, like, now I've got to decide who I like the best out of these one seeds. Exactly. Well, I don't, I'm not a pearl guy. I'm not proud of this, but it takes

guts to pick four one seeds. I like Houston. Give me Houston. I would love for them to get over the hump. L.J. Cryer, good player. My champion is the Duke Blue Devils. One of the best teams I've ever seen. That's big for you.

Yeah, flag's got to be healthy. One of the best teams you've ever seen. They're that good. Yes. When they were here, they played hard for 40 minutes. Less gross because Shire isn't Shire. Isn't Shishis.

Yeah. I mean, I don't like them by any means. Yeah. But it hurts a little less. Yeah. Fuck. I know. I know.

All right. How about an upset in the first round? Upset? Sure. He's looking for one. Nah. Hey, an 11th. An 11 seat has won.

a round one game in every tournament since 2005. You understand? Yeah, I understand. I think Drake's taking down Missouri. Yeah, that's going to be very popular. Missouri's good. Okay. But, sure, Drake is capable of...

Where are the... Fuck. See, it's... All right. Okay. Yeah. I like UCSD, the Tritons, get past Michigan. If Carolina can win their first four game, I think they get by Ole Miss.

First four teams go on runs. They win games that first weekend. I think Carolina could get by that unhealthy Iowa State Club. Really like a Sweet 16 matchup of Texas Tech and St. John's. Thanks, Texas Tech could get those guys. Grant McCasland, great coach. BYU and VCU. Flip a coin.

That winner could go play. places. On bet MGM, number nine, Baylor is one and a half point favorites against number eight, Mississippi State, and number 12, Colorado, minus two and a half against number five Memphis. Yeah, it's Colorado State. Colorado States, thank you. Coach by the great Nico Medved, Memphis is not healthy. Tyrese Hunter's hurt. It's going to be a fun tournament. Hey, in that East, Chris, I like a 1213 in the second round, huh? Liberty and Akron. Liberty representing the Commonwealth. with the VCU Rams. A lot to do about UNC making this tournament.

Are you in that camp, or do you support their resume? I support it. I feel like I'm getting soft. I support it. Look, quadrant one, I get it, 1 and 11. Every other metric, including things like I test and vibe test, they pass. I understand Cooper Flag did not play, but they were within a point of the number one seed Duke Blue Devils.

Carolina earned a spot. I'm sorry, West Virginia. Win more games. You want to be in the tournament. Win more basketball games. Yeah. You don't hear us complaining. Don't hear us complaining.

We didn't win enough games. That's right. Duke over Auburn. So I can skip this one. That's the answer. Got the answer key right here. I'm going to put a lot on the Johnny's. After hearing that.

Round two could be Petino Caliperi. So if I were, to put if I were to put like because these games start what Thursday if I were to put a Friday get let's say a Friday game Friday's where I anticipate being liquored up to where I want to put a lot of money on a basketball game give me one I need to look up who's playing Friday you don't know much do you you don't know the whole schedule uh oh here it is here it is Cowboys got it I like... I'm going to tell you who my heart's going to be behind on Friday

because this is usually how I bet the NCAA tournament, which is why books love the NCAA tournament. Okay. Like Akron to cover that 13 and a half. Robert Morris just sounds like a cigarette to me, and I'd love to see them beat Alabama. Cigarettes defeat Alabama for the millionth time. I never liked St. Mary's.

I don't like the spider I hate their logo I'm probably going to pull for Vanderbilt What's the spider? Aren't they a spider? They're the gales It kind of looks like a fucking spider It does look like a spider

Is that what? Yeah Pull up their logo Piece of shit I think it's a little crest With like a G in it Yeah it looks It looks like a spider to me

Okay Does that not look like Kind of like spidery? Yeah spidery ish. Gales, dude. Get the fuck out of here with that. All right. Okay, I'm going to take

I'm definitely going to be rooting for Ole Miss if UNC gets in. How about Grand Canyon, bro? Here's the thing. Maryland's super duper good. Oh, fuck. Grand Canyon is going to be a popular upset pick, I think. Okay, how about Colorado, Memphis? I think Maryland runs them off the court.

State Memphis. I just watched Colorado State the other day. Colorado State wins the game. And here your Friday evening. Here you're Friday evening. That was, hey, that was just 12 to 4. Oh my God. I'm going to be obliterated at this point. Let's see. I'm going to pick the lucky

winner right now. Go Yukon, right? They're still the champ. Norfolk State over Florida. How good is Florida? Really, really, really, really. good. They have the best odds right now, plus 350 on bed MGM. Their guards are excellent. However, if you're taking the future, I like them in that west. Maryland, Texas Tech. Okay. Get a little spicy. There's your college basketball. Hey, one last thing. Did I, like, remember the

Baron Browning thing? How I said I was going to invest in him? Now I never did because I was like, this sounds seems ridiculous. So he just got paid. He just got paid a two-year deal that could, it's two years, $15 million, could be up to $19 million. And just a reminder for those fans about Baron Browning. It was a deal via Vestibule investments. Yeah.

He gave away between $60,000 and 100,000 shares. It would finish $65,340 shares, $10 apiece for an opportunity to have 1% of his future earnings. That kicked in last year, started with his 2024 salary,

which you would have gotten a return of 47, 47 and a half cents in 2024, which would have been paid out in a monthly payment. How about in 25? 20, after this new deal. If I put 10 grand in. 1450, would it be, you get. You get that out of an August.

You got, explain this? Yeah, 1450 per share. All in the rest of the carries risk, this would have been a bad one. All right. Good. I walked away at the right time while still respecting Baron Brown. Unless he goes... Bunkers, because it's continuous, you know...

Basically for him, if he makes $52 million and some change throughout his career, he comes... Anything less than that, he comes out on top. Unless he becomes Fernando Tatis Jr. Yes. I think you were right to stay away. It was a good stay away. Yeah.

I don't know what's going to happen later this week. So you might hear from us later in the week, but I'm going to go on a short vacation. and we'll be back at it soon. So check your notifications. What is up? It's the Butter King Dairy Expert. This episode of the Greenlight podcast is brought to you by Dea Pizza featuring dairy-free cheese,

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